In Nevada, roughly 1,900 homes in the foreclosure process have been vacated, down 48 percent from a year earlier, RealtyTrac reported.

The research firm called the empty homes generally “one of the lingering legacies” of the housing crash, a “byproduct of lengthy foreclosure timelines and changing state foreclosure statutes.”

Nevada is ground zero for those changes.

Foreclosures have tapered off here largely because of a law that stretched out the foreclosure process, preventing banks from seizing homes en masse but leaving many residents in legal limbo. Such homeowners are behind on their mortgage and should, in theory, lose their house to foreclosure, but they haven’t because of banks’ paperwork delays.

After the housing bubble burst, foreclosures soared in Nevada, with lenders seizing about 2,500 homes a month in 2011. But state lawmakers drastically slowed that with the “robosigning” law, which took effect in fall 2011 and forced banks to provide more paperwork before they foreclosed.

Two more laws that could affect foreclosures also were approved last year, but they seem to work against each other.

Senate Bill 321, dubbed the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights, sought to make it easier for residents to avoid foreclosure. It bars bankers from trying to seize a person’s home while also pursuing a short sale at the same time, and it forces lenders to give homeowners more foreclosure prevention options and other information before seizing a house.